ON THE DISEASES OF DOGS. 
696 
who have observed it more closely and under more varied forms 
than any other persons, generally agree in designating it “ nasal 
catarrh,” a name which appears to us more applicable to it than any 
other ; for it is usually accompanied by all the symptoms of actual 
coryza, and is always more or less catarrhal in its simple and pri- 
mary state, becoming gradually, and by some undiscovered train of 
sympathies, complicated with nervous affections which bring on 
paralysis of the lumbar column, emaciation, and, eventually, death. 
Causes . — These are but little known, and those alleged are 
at best but suppositious. It has been attributed to the voracity 
natural to dogs — to their lasciviousness — to their frequently de- 
vouring carrion, &c. &c. Chabert has attributed it to their being 
fed on unnatural and unwholesome food, and especially on a kind 
of soup made of coarse bread and grease. 
From the circumstance of the dog being carnivorous, swallowing 
his food almost without mastication, and in a larger portion than his 
stomach can digest, and gnawing bones with considerable pleasure, 
it has been inferred that all other kinds of diet are contrary to 
nature and predispose him to contract disease. This supposition, 
however, is not supported by experience, but rather proves that 
3'oung dogs who have been bred up in-doors, nursed, petted and 
kept warm, and fed almost entirely on cooked meat and bones, are 
far more liable to take on disease generally, and this disease espe- 
cially, than the shepherd’s dogs that are exposed to all weathers, 
and rarely get any thing but vegetables and bread to eat. An ex- 
periment made at the Veterinary School at Alfort confirms this. 
A bitch having littered, half of her pups were fed on cooked meat 
and bones, and the other half on milk and bread, or vegetable 
soup. The former caught la maladie , and became so bad that 
St. Vitus’s dance ensued : the latter, with one exception, grew up 
fine healthy dogs, and that one was attacked very slightly. It has 
also been observed, that this disease chiefly, but not exclusively, 
attacks young animals from three or four months to two years 
and a half old — that it is peculiar to no particular season, and is 
usually most prevalent in dry seasons, when it rages during the 
summer and autumn. 
Some persons assert that a particular pathological substance, a 
white, opaque, vermicular body will be found under the tongue of 
all dogs attacked by this disease, and that it is a great cause, if 
not the determinate one, of all the symptoms and sufferings which 
supervene. This, however, is altogether wrong. 
Contagion. — Some persons still entertain the old belief, that 
nasal catarrh in the dog is contagious, and they found their belief 
on these facts, — that it rarely attacks the same animal twice — 
that it attacks all, or nearly all the dogs, in a certain town, pack, 
